EU, China, Piracy

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Better people can explain this than me:

Violations of intellectual property rights, trademarks and patents held by EU companies and researchers will be high on the agenda when European Commission President Manuel Barroso leads a large delegation into two days of economic and trade talks in Beijing starting Thursday.

The EU estimates pirated goods cost EU businesses €21 billion (US$33.3 billion) in lost trade annually — about a third of current EU exports to China. But unlike the United States, it has to date not pursued any Chinese piracy cases in the World Trade Organization.

Still, the EU has put China in the category of worst violators of intellectual property. It is the only country in that category because its anti-piracy efforts are so weak that 80 percent of counterfeit goods imported into the 27-nation bloc are Chinese-made.
More: While upset about piracy, EU is more serene about China than US